Slab handling apparatus



July 22, 1969 J. T. O'KEEFE SLAB HANDLING APPARATUS ,'3 Sheets-Sheet l Filed May ll, 1967 k/W/ m- @NN R, I WU/ @NN N NN M M \N\ JWIN.. .ha J1 L. www i nf,... w l u 1 LNH E wm Q in@ ww lw\\ w INVENTOR. Jo/f/v r ok/EEFE July 22, 1969 J. T. oKEl-:FE 3,456,819

, SLAB HANDLlNG APPARATUS IN VENTOR.

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AroRA/EK United States Patent O U.S. Cl. 214-26 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A slab extractor Ifor use with a slab reheating furnace including a hearth, wherein the slab extractor comprises an elongated ram extending and movable in two directions parallel to the direction of travel of said slab through said furnace, a slab-lifting element forming part of the said ram on its end adjacent said furnace, adapted to be brought into the furnace and below a slab, means at the end opposite said furnace for pivotally supporting said ram, gear teeth on one side of said ram, a driven pinion meshing with said gear teeth so as to advance said rams longitudinally relative to said furnace, means arranged below said ram adapted to engage the bottom of the ram to raise the slab-lifting element from a position beneath a slab, to lift a slab from the hearth, and means for moving said ram-lifting means towards and away from said ram.

Background of invention In the handling of heated slabs incident to the operation of a hot strip rolling mill, it has been the usual practice in the past to allow the slabs to slide down a skid, arranged at the exit side of the furnace, onto a slab delivery table which would convey the slabs to the lirst mill. The elevational difference between the furnace and the entry table through which the slab fell could amount to several feet and, because of the extreme weight of the slab, a bumper was provided to dissipate the energy and decelerate the slab after it passed transversely over the table. Such an arrangement, due to the increasing size of the slabs being handled by recent mills, lpresented a very serious problem in that the bumpers were continually subject to breakage, and the slabs themselves due to the impact with the bumpers became deformed or otherwise objectionably marked. This condition is quite unsatisfactory and in an attempt to alleviate the problem, more recent mills have provided for slab receiving devices which extend between the table and the furnace for receiving the slabs discharged from the furnace, after which the devices are rotated to present them on the table. An illustration of this device is seen in U.S. Patent No. 3,129,829 which issued on Apr. 2l, 1964 in the name of H. C. Ferguson. However, these devices are quite cumbersome and expensive and have not been well received.

Drawings The features and advantages of the present invention will become better appreciated with the following description is read along with the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view, partly in section, of one embodiment of the present invention,

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 3 is a second elevational view showing the slab extractor in a second position.

3,456,819 Patented July 22, 1969 lCe Description of invention With reference to the drawings and, particularly, to FIGURE l, it might be well first to describe the essential components of the furnace which, although not shown, it is to be understood are arranged toward the left of the figures. The slabs to be reheated will be received at the entry side of the furnace and moved along the furnaces sectionally constructed hearth where they will be heated to the desired rolling temperature. The placing of the slabs in the furnace is to be controlled so that as the slabs are brought to the discharge side of the furnace, they will always come to a predetermined position relative thereto.

At the discharge side of thefurnace, an opening is provided through which the slabs will pass from the furnace, which opening is provided with independently operated upper and lower furnace doors. As shown in the drawing which illustrates a portion of the hearth 10, at the delivery side of the furnace 11 there is a slight inclination `12 from the horizontal. In this construction, as the slabs are advanced over the horizontal hearth, they will be displaced from the horizontal to an inclined position and should there be any tendency to adhere to the adjacent slab, the adherence will be severed.

Turning now to the slab extractor itself as illustrated in FIGURES l and 2, there is provided a number of longitudinally extending rams 13, the rams being constructed and arranged so as to fit between the adjacent driven rollers 14 of the slab entry table 15, the table, as previously noted, adapted to receive the slabs from the furnace and convey them onto a rolling mill, not shown.

At the end of the rams adjacent the furnace there are provided slab engaging heads 17, being of such width as to adequately handle the maximum width slab and which are adapted to be advanced into the furnace between the slab and between the sections of the herth. At the opposite end of the rams 13, an advancing mechanism is provided which consists of a motor-driven pinion 21, the pinion being connected to a shaft 22, the shaft in turn being rotated by a common motor 23. Each ram has a separate pinion 21 which meshes with teeth 24 formed on the bottom of the ram 13 and through which means the ram is moved in a longitudinal direction. The rams 13 also are adapted to pivot about the shaft 22 and, in order to allow this to occur, the rams are received in frames 25, the frames being carried by the shaft 22. At the top of the frames there are provided between the upper surface of the rams 13 and the frames, guide rollers 26 under which the rams pass.

Turning now to the means for raising and lowering the rams 13, attention is drawn again to FIGURE 2 where there is provided beneath each ram an arm 27, the upper end of the arm being provided with a roller 27a that engages the bottom surface of the ram and over which the ram moves. The arm 27 is carried by a pin 28 rotatably mounted in a bearing block 29, the lower end of which is connected to the piston of the piston cylinder assembly 31 and by which means the arm is arcuately displaced so as to cause the roller to raise the ram 13. A lowering of the roller, of course, will allow the ram to lower by its own weight.

A brief description will now be given of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in the above drawings. As noted before, the slabs are advanced through the furnace 11 in a manner that insures that they will be located in a predetermined position at the exit side of the furnace where they will be supported by the spaced sections of the hearth 10. One such slab is illustrated in IFIGURE l. As noted before, the hearth is inclined relative to the horizontal so as to automatically separate the two adjacent slabs. On the advancing of a slab to the discharge position in the furnace, the motor 23 will be operated to move the rams 13 in unison over the ram-supporting rollers 27a and, hence, slab-engaging heads 17 into a position with the furnace 11, it being understood that previous to this being done, the lower door of the furnace will be retracted to allow the heads to pass into the furnace. Once the heads are so positioned, the piston cylinder assemblies 31 will be operated to cause the rollers 27a to raise and lift the rams so as to bring the heads into a supporting position with the slab and above the hearth 10. After this the rams 13 will be retracted so as to bring the slab above the table roller 14 to a position in the center of the table as controlled by the fixed stroke of the rams after which the piston cylinder assemblies 31 will again be operated to deposit the slab in a parallel manner on the table roller 14.

It should be emphasized that the illustrated arrangement assures that the slabs, when brought from the furnace, will be automatically positioned in a predetermined relationship on the entry table 15. Once the slab is positioned on the table, the rams 13 will continue to lower and be brought to a position adjacent to the furnace door in readiness to receive the next slab.

1n accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle and operation of my invention and have illustrated and described what I consider to represent the best embodiment thereof.

Iclaim:

1. An apparatus for extracting a slab from a reheating furnace and for depositing the slab at a -predetermined constant location on a transfer table, said furnace having a hearth for supporting a slab passing through the furnace, comprising:

a pair of elongated rams extending in a direction parallel to the direction of travel of a slab through said furnace;

said rams each having a slab engaging surface located at the end of the ram most adjacent to said furnace and adapted to be passed into the furnace below a slab supported on said hearth;

first ram support means located remote from said end most adjacent to said furnace for pivotally supporting said rams;

first drive means connected to said rams for displacing said slab engaging surfaces into and out of said furnace in a substantially horizontal direction and parallel to the direction of slab travel through the furnace;

said first ram supporting means guiding said rams in said horizontal direction; second ram support means discrete from said first ram supporting means disposed between said slab support surface and first ram support means for engaging said rams; second drive means connected to said second ram support means for vertically displacing said second ram support means and pivotally displacing said rams, whereby said Slab engaging surfaces are displaced into a supporting relation with a slab in said furnace and caused to carry the slab from the furnace upon operation of said first drive means; and said second drive means being constructed and arranged to pivotally displace said rams to deposit a slab eX- tracted from said funnace on said transfer table at a predetermined constant location relative to the table. 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second ram support means comprise:

separate means arranged below each of said rams for independently engaging the bottom surfaces of said rams, a pair of arms independently mounted below said rams for carrying the last mentioned separate means. 3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said second drive means comprises:

piston and cylinder assembly means connected to said arms for vertically displacing said separate means and said rams. 4. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said separate means comprise:

a roller mounted on said arm -for freely engaging the lower surface of said ram.

References Cited i UNITED STATES PATENTS ROBERT G, SHERIDAN, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 214-91 

